Triathlon Manitoba athletes ready to take centre stage

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This article was published 21/06/2017 (2499 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There are a lot of factories in Manitoba — Old Dutch, Crown Royal and the Nutty Club, just to name a few. But there’s another factory in the province that is making a name for itself — the Canada Sports Centre Manitoba (CSCM), which has been producing some of the best triathletes in the country.

Triathlon Manitoba teamed up with the CSCM in 2000, the same year triathlon became an Olympic sport. Access to a nutritionist, sports psychologist and exercise physiologist has paid off for local triathletes. At last summer’s Olympic Games in Rio, three Manitobans represented Canada in the sport, making up nearly half the national team. Tyler Mislawchuk and Sarah-Anne Brault competed in the triathlon and Chantal Givens competed in the paratriathlon.

But the success hasn’t stopped there for Manitoban triathletes. This past weekend in Ottawa, 22-year-old Mislawchuk won gold at the CAMTRI Premium American’s Continental Cup & Canadian Triathlon Championships and 18-year-old Kyla Roy won the junior national title. Seven other Manitobans also competed at the two-day event.

“When we started our program in 2000, we started with the CSCM right away. It’s worked really well. It’s been a great process and really allowed us to grow,” said head coach Gary Pallett, who has been with the program since Day 1.

Mislawchuk, who finished 15th at the Olympics despite racing on a broken leg, says it’s no fluke Manitoba has been able to produce so many elite triathletes. He credits Pallett and the Triathlon Manitoba program for helping him achieve his goal of reaching the Olympics and he tries to give back to the program when he can.

“We’ve all come from the same coach and program. (Pallett) is an amazing guy and still one of my good friends. Manitoba has a great grassroots and youth program. The climate isn’t great for it, we don’t have a huge population, so when you continually get athletes like these out of the province, it’s not luck, it’s something that the province and coaches are doing right. I’m proud to be from Manitoba,” Mislawchuk said.

Despite being only 22 years old, Mislawchuk is now the veteran of the Manitoban triathletes as Brault retired from the sport after the Olympics. Mislawchuk said he gives the younger athletes advice when they ask for it because he always appreciated when more experienced athletes helped him out when he first started competing.

“He has motivated me a lot. If I’m going through a hard time, I’ll ask him for advice before races. He’s really helpful,” said Roy, who will be heading to Arizona State University in the fall on a triathlon scholarship.

Pallett said kids in the program have been lucky to always have older athletes such as Mislawchuk to look up to. Pallet is always on the lookout for the next athlete with Olympic potential, as seeing so many Manitobans compete in the sport in Rio was the highlight of his coaching career.

“(Mislawchuk) is only going to get better. He was the youngest triathlon athlete to qualify for the Olympics. He has a huge upside and I think he has a good chance to get a medal in 2020 in Tokyo,” said Pallett, who finished 15th at the world championships in 1992.

Before Pallett helps Mislawchuk get back to the Olympics to try to win a medal for Canada, he has a couple other medals he is focusing on first. Pallett is hoping for a top-three finish at next month’s Canada Games for Manitoba’s provincial team. Despite having a smaller population than most provinces, he said there’s a chance the team could find the podium as triathlon was the province’s best sport at the 2009 Summer Games and the 2015 Western Canada Games.

“It’s pretty hard to compete with the big-four provinces, but we’re going to take a run at it, and, hopefully, compete for some medals,” he said.

Roy and her younger sister, Caitlyn, will be two of the athletes representing the province next month. She also hopes to do what she can to add to Manitoba’s medal count.

“Most of our triathlons are pretty far away, so my family has never seen me do a triathlon. I’m really excited for them to come and watch,” Roy said.

Mislawchuk, who won a silver medal at the 2013 Canada Games, said next month’s competition will be an invaluable experience for local triathletes that want to make a name for themselves in the sport. Mislawchuk was able to make the jump from the Canada Games to the Olympics in only three years.

“For that age, that is the Olympics Games. For me, it was huge. It was my first multi-sports Games and I learned things that I still carry (with me) to this day,” Mislawchuk said.

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @TaylorAllen31